Secret Are Never Skin Deep
by newbienovelistRD
Summary: After recovering her memories, Dana drags Ben to New Phaetos to collect her items. But she discovers more than just some lost things.


**My friend Redbat132 requested this story starring her OC Dana, aka Silvania. Enjoy and no flames please. Thank you :)**

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Ben Tennyson was preparing his Omnitrix for what could be the most dangerous expedition of his life.

Shortly after Ben and his friends saved Bellwood as well as the universe from the Evil Queen and his uncle Benedict, Ben was happy things were back to normal. But Azmuth took the liberty of restarting the Omnitrix, meaning the master control was no more.

Dana poked her head through Ben's wall. "Come on, Ben! What's taking you so long?!"

"Dana! We're going to a city full of Ectonurites! I gotta be prepared so I don't get eaten alive down there!"

"Ben, we're only going back to my hometown to pick up some of my old things! Now that I have my memory back, I have a lot of catching up to do! Starting with my stuff!"

Ben sighed. Ever since Dana got her memory back, she's been begging Ben up and be down to go to New Phaetos, the underground city below Undertown that was home to Ectonurite citizens.

But Ben wasn't all to keen on Ectonurites, especially the ones that give him a lot of problems...

"Alright, let's just go and get back to Bellwood!"

* * *

However, getting to New Phaetos was different from getting to Undertown. Instead of the usual Bellwood passage, Ben and Dana (in her human disguise) arrived at Bellwood Cemetery.

"Remind me again why we're here?" asked Ben. He jumped when a crow from a dead tree cawed and flew over the boy's head.

"Because this is the only secret passage to New Phaetos. Undertown is a dangerous neighborhood, so we made sure there were no entrances in Undertown and took the liberty of building this one smack dab in a cemetery for emergencies, it's the last place anyone would look for Ectonurites."

"But isn't a cemetery too obvious to find alien ghosts?" asked Ben.

Dana shook her head. "Nope, no it's not. Aliens are hardly interested in living humans. So no alien would ever think to look for us in a place full of dead human bodies."

Ben felt disturbed and offended, but Dana made a good point. "Wait a minute, if you guys can phase through solid matter, why do you need a secret passage?"

Dana paused.

"Like I said, it's for emergencies."

Dana arrived at an old tombstone. The words were difficult to make out on the ancient stone. Dana morphed into her Ectonurite form. She reached down and phased her hand through the ground, grabbing a lever attached to the tombstone.

The secret passage opened...right below Ben's feet.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Ben screamed as he fell down into the dark abyss.

Dana laughed as she jumped down the passageway. "CANNONBAAAAAALL!"

Ben screamed as he kept falling down. He was just about to transform into something to break his fall when he fell out an opening and landed on something soft.

Groaning, Ben looked around and found himself floating in mid air! But...how?!

Thats when Ben made the startling discovery that he landed on a flying Ectonurite!

The Ectonurite turned her skull like head all the way around to see a startled human riding on her back. "A HUMAN!" she screeched.

"Gotta go!" Ben jumped off the alien and raised his hand to use the Omnitrix. But a flurry of striped tentacles grabbed his arms and legs.

"OH, COME ON!" Ben yelled as two Ectonurite pedestrians restrained him and lowered him to the ground.

Ben took in his surroundings. This was New Phaetos. It reminded Ben of Anur Transyl, only it was underground. The buildings looked like haunted houses you only see in movies.

But Ben was more concerned about the many Ectonurites that were surrounding him.

"I saw that a human?!"

"A real human!"

"How did a human get here?!"

Ben tried to struggle free. "Let me go! I don't even want to Ben here!"

"Everyone! He's with me!"

The New Phaetos citizens saw Dana floating down to join her alien ghost brethren. "Hi, guys! I'm back!"

"SILVANIA!" All the aliens screamed and rejoiced upon Dana's return.

"I can't believe it! Silvania's back!" said an Ectonurite.

"Yeah, I've been taking a LONG vacation." Dana lied. She wasn't used to being called Silvania since she took on the name Dana. But she kept it in honor of the human she was infused with. "Anyway, this is my friend, Ben Tennyson. He's a good human and he likes Ectonurites."

"Uh-" Ben was going to protest until he saw the alarmed aliens relax.

"Oh, that's a relief."

"I thought he was dangerous."

"So, this is a real human?" A female Ectonurite poked Ben in the ribs, making him squeak. She stroked the boy's soft brown hair.

Another Ectonurite poked the middle of his stomach. "Wow! He's so soft!"

"And squishy!" An Ectonurite giggled as he poked Ben's thigh.

Soon enough, every Ectonurite in New Phaetos was poking and stroking Ben wherever he was soft. His stomach, sides, ribs, legs, underarms, they even took his shoes off and played with his toes.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! STOP IT! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! YOU'RE TICKLING ME! STOP!" Ben laughed as their prodding tickled him silly.

Dana chuckles at the sight and say, "Guess things have changed a bit since I left."

"No kidding! We've never had a human down here before! A male Ectonurite said, poking Ben's neck.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! DANA! HELP MEHEEHEE!" Ben pleaded.

"Okay, you guys." Dana chuckled. "Get off of Ben or he'll-"

But suddenly, Dana spotted an unknown figure enter...her old house.

Reacting fast, Dana zipped to her home, leaving alone Ben to fend himself from the curious Ectonurites.

Dana flew into her home, it was exactly how she left it. Dark and spooky with dismal furniture and frightening portraits hanging on the walls Although it had more dust and cobwebs than before, Dana didn't mind. It made the place more cozy.

But Dana had no time to admire the doom and gloom. She had to find her home intruder.

Hearing a clatter nearby, Dana rushed to her bedroom.

Standing there, or rather, floating there, was an Ectonurite she's never seen before.

He had two eyes, one on his head and one on his chest. His second skin was purple and looked like a hooded cloak. In one hand, he held a scythe.

And in the other hand was something Dana treasured; a cracked, creepy porcelain doll with long, ratty blonde hair, tattered while laced dress, and spooky blue eyes.

To humans, a doll like that would terrify anyone. But this is a precious doll every Ectonurite girl would want to have.

Dana always played with that doll. Morning, noon, and night she would play games with it, dress it up, have haunted tea parties, and scare humans with it. That doll was like a best friend to Dana.

And this complete stranger was stealing it.

"Put. That. Down." Dana warned, her voice so ominous it would scare even the scariest ghost.

But the intruder didn't even flinch. Instead, he laughed.

"And what if I don't?" he said with a cocky grin. "I could just break it into a million species of I wanted to. Maybe even spit on it."

His words caused a sudden change within Dana's body. Her genuine anger seemed to manifest, causing Dana's skin to rip in places that shouldn't rip.

Her claws began to grow so much that they ripped out of her white skin to reveal long boney nails with ghoulish pale purple hands. Her wings tore through her back, spreading out to reveal that they were skeleton bat wings.

Even her tail started to rip off the bottom that was nearly the length of her clawed arms and gave her skin the illusion of a dress that showed it to be black and white stripped. Her own right side was ripped, exposing black and white ribs.

And finally, the skin Dana's face was ripped off the skin to show her skull-like face with sharp fangs. Even her hair became and a striped black and white tentacle with the back of her tail connected to her head the same.

The hooded intruder laughed. "You're everything I hoped you would be, Silvania!"

"How do you know my real name?! Who are you?!" Dana looked at herself. "And since when can I do this?!"

"Because I made you that way." the sickle wielding Ectonurite said. "I am Zs'Skayr. But you can call me...Father."

"FATHER?!" Shocked, Dana jumped back into her bookcase.

Zs'Skayr laughed as he callously tossed Dana's doll at Dana. Luckily, Dana reacted fast and caught her toy before it touched the ground. "I was just as surprised as you are now when I heard you were still alive after all these years. Forgive me not coming forward to you sooner."

"I-I-It can't be..." Dana slowly got up. "You can't be my father! I'm an orphan!"

"Oh, it can." Zs'Skayr approached Dana. "I only came by to see how you were doing. It seems Tennyson has been taking good care of you. It figures a two faced fool like him would help someone like you."

"Two faced fool?!" Dana became more angry. "Ben Tennyson is a saint!"

Zs'Skayr scoffed. "Sure he is. He loves playing the hero and getting all the glory, which is why he sucks up to us aliens." He narrowed his pink eye. "It's absolutely disgusting, isn't it?"

"BEN IS NOT DISGUSTING! Take it back!" Dana roared.

"Why would I take back the truth, my precious daughter? Don't trust that boy, Silvania. He'll turn on you in an instant if he knew where you really came from."

There were a million questions Dana wanted to ask her father, but a different voice stopped her.

"Dana! Are you in here?" It was Ben.

"That's my cue to leave." Zs'Skayr stroked Dana's head. "Until we meet again, Silvania. Daddy will be dropping in once in a while to see how you're doing." He vanished with his invisibility. "Remember, family always comes first..."

Ben entered Dana's room and uncorked a girly scream when he saw Dana's terrifying form. "DANA?!"

"Huh?!" Dana looked at herself in the dresser mirror. "Oops! Sorry, Ben!" Dana calmed herself down and changed back to normal.

"How the heck did you do that?! You looked like a nightmare!" Ben managed to stand on his quivering legs.

"I...don't know. It just happened."

Ben sighed. "Well, whatever the reason, let's get out of here already! I barely managed to get away from those goofball ghost aliens!" he snapped.

Dana saw the angry look in Ben's eyes. Guess he really did hate Ectonurites...

"What are you staring at?!" Ben firmly put his hands on his hips. "Did you find what you were looking for or not?!"

"Uh, yeah. I did." Dana held up her doll. "I got what I came for."

"Good. Now let's get out of this spook town before the locals find me!" Ben activated the Omnitrix and became Ghostfreak. "Let's go!" He phased through the roof.

Dana heaved a sigh. Caressing her doll, she followed Ben all the way up to the surface. They were back in the graveyard. The sun was out so no Ectonurites followed them.

"Well, that was fun. Let's never go back there again." Ben quipped. "Come on, let's get some Mr. Smoothy." Ben walked off, but turned back to Dana, still holding her doll. "Dana! What are you standing around for? Let's go!"

"I'm coming!" Dana followed her friend. But...was Ben really her friend?

From within the darkness of New Phaetos, hidden from the townsfolk, Zs'Skayr couldn't help but relish. "Seed planted."

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 **To see the image of Dana's nightmare form, go to wattpad. It's in Redbat142's art gallery, image 61.**


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